Sanada Yukimura

(1567 –1615), also known as Sanada Nobushige was a Japanese samurai warrior especially known as the leading general on the defending side of the Siege of Osaka. Yukimura was called “A Hero who may appear once in a hundred years”. He built a small fortress in the southwest corner of Osaka Castle, an earthwork barbican defended by 7,000 men under his command. From there, he defeated the Tokugawa forces (approx. 30,000 men) with groups of 6,000 arquebusiers. Tokugawa Ieyasu then resorted to artillery, which included 17 imported European cannon sand domestic wrought iron cannons, as well as sappers employed to dig under the walls of the fortress. The fortress was impregnable; the Tokugawa suffered many losses. Ieyasu gave up trying to destroy the castle and sued for peace with Toyotomi Hideyori, son and heir of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He proposed a condition for the reconciliation, i.e. to destroy the outer moat of the castle. When his envoy entered the castle grounds, they destroyed not only the outer moat but the inner moat as well. In the following Summer Siege of Osaka Castle the Toyotomi Clan was finished. Yukimura was badly wounded and exhausted in the defense and too tired to fight back, he allowed his adversaries to kill him, reportedly saying, “I am Sanada Nobushige, no doubt an adversary quite worthy of you, but I am exhausted and can fight no longer. Go on, take my head as your trophy”. His head was chopped off. The siege of Osaka was the last armed opposition against the establishment of the Shogunate of Ieyasu.